This Father Had No Idea A Wrong Number Text Would Save His Family

What do you do when you receive a wrong number text? Like most of us, you probably send a simple “sorry, wrong number” back and forget about it. Well, Tony Wood is not like the rest of us. He decided to try something a little different after getting a random text message from a complete stranger.

Instead of ignoring the text, or sending a quick, polite reply, Wood thought of a funny response to send back to the mystery texter. He even enlisted the help of his family! After all, what did he have to lose? Little did Wood know that the strange message would end up saving his child’s life…

1. A Strange Message

In 2018, Tony Wood, seen below, was enjoying a quiet night at home with his children when he received a text from a number he did not recognize. However, as a busy realtor in Tennessee, he felt quite accustomed to calls from strangers. After all, it was part of his daily work!

As he opened the phone to read the message, Wood figured it came from an eager buyer who could simply not wait until morning. But, as soon as he started reading the message, Wood realized he had received a wrong number text. Furthermore, without knowing it, this father had started a chain of events that eventually end up saving his son’s life…

2. The Wrong Number Text

The wrong number text turned out to come from a young girl, one seeking advice. Accidentally, she had sent Wood two photos of herself wearing an elegant, floor-length gown. Furthermore, it the text, the young woman asked how the dress looked on her. While it must have been intended for a close friend or family, Wood was neither of those!

Wood figured that the young woman must have been preparing for a glitzy event, something like a prom or wedding. Clearly, she wanted approval from a family member or friend, which the father of six could not provide. So, instead, Wood decided to have a little fun with the young lady who had texted him…

3. An Act of Kindness

To make this mystery sender’s day, Wood came up with a wonderful idea. First, Wood herded his kids into the room to get their opinions on the dress. As fate would have it, the kids unanimously and enthusiastically thought it looked great on the young woman!

Next, Wood asked all his kids to squeeze in tight for a picture. There, they all gave the young lady a “thumbs up” on the beautiful dress. After snapping the picture, Wood sent it to the mysterious woman. At the time, Wood and his children simply felt excited to see her reaction. They had no idea they had started on a journey that would change all of their lives forever…

4. A Disappointing Reaction

While he enjoyed taking the picture, Wood did not really expect the mystery sender to reply to his message. But that was okay! He just wanted to make a stranger smile! That’s why Wood decided to send along a picture of his children instead of a bland “sorry wrong number” response. On the other hand, his children felt eager to hear back from the woman!

Unfortunately, while Wood and the kids waited for hours, they never received a message back. Eventually, the family moved on with their normal lives and forgot all about the mystery woman. Then, a few weeks later, Tony Wood saw something online that made him do a double-take…

5. An Unusual Discovery

Several weeks passed by after Wood received the wrong number text. Since the woman never replied, Wood figured that he and his children would never hear back from her. However, that wasn’t the case!

As any realtor can tell you, marketing and social media are essential in getting your realty business seen. As such, Wood was an avid Twitter and Facebook user. One day, while scrolling through Twitter, he saw the same photo of his children he had sent the wrong number texter weeks ago! It came from a woman named Mandi Miller, seen above, who also included the images of the dress and pictures of the texts. At that point, Wood must have been wondering what was going on!

6. Twitter Famous

Thankfully, Miller also included a Twitter caption that helped explain the mystery to Tony Wood. As it turns out, the mystery woman who had texted Wood was Miller’s friend Syd, who felt too embarrassed to reply. All of a sudden, everything started to make sense to the father of six.

However, the surprises did not end there! Miller had pinned the tweet to her page, as it had garnered upward of 170,000 retweets! Not only that, but it also received 680,000 likes and over 500 comments. “Oh, this is cool! The kids are Twitter famous,” Wood said. While he and the kids never received a reply from Syd, Wood felt this was just as good! So, the father of six decided to reach out again, this time to Miller.

7. A Simple “Hi”

While Tony Wood didn’t know either Miller or Syd, he thought it seemed appropriate to say hello. So, Wood tweeted a response to Miller, introducing himself as the children’s father. He also let her know about the hysterical way he had simply stumbled across the viral tweet.

Even if their story had ended there, Wood, Miller, and Syd’s story would be a sweet one for the ages. After all, how often do people reply to random messages and have a pleasant exchange? Let alone become a viral sensation because of it? Not often! However, he had no idea at the moment that his simple “hi” would have bigger implications…

8. Someone’s Missing

In his message to Mandi Miller, Wood also decided to reveal something about his family, something his closest friends didn’t even know. What nobody knew about the “thumbs up” picture of Wood’s children was that two family members are missing from the photo: his six-year-old son, Kaizler, and his wife, Rachel. That’s because both of them were at the hospital when Wood received the wrong number text from Syd. Meanwhile, Wood was taking care of the rest of the kids at home.

This is why Wood decided to try and make his mystery texter smile. He figured that, even in his darkest moments, he would still try and bring a little positivity to the world. Of course, Miller wanted to know more about why little Kaizler was in the hospital…

9. Kaizler’s Illness

In 2015, little Kaizler Wood began acting lethargic and suffered from a fever that simply would not go away. At first, Wood and his wife believed Kaizler had the flu, nothing to worry much about. However, over the next few weeks, his symptoms became worse and worse. Eventually, they brought Kaizler to a pediatrician at the hospital, to find out what was wrong.

Unfortunately, the doctor at the hospital examined Kaizler thoroughly, but could not determine the cause of his symptoms. Things became even worse when they recieved the hospital’s test results: little Kaizler tested negative for both the flu and an ear infection. They were back to square one.

10. Getting to The Bottom of His Symptoms

Determined to figure out what illness plagued Kaizler, the doctor next ordered full blood work done on him. Meanwhile, Wood and Rachel were desperate to find out what was wrong with Kaizler. Not knowing seemed worse than any illness.

Even worse, just a few weeks ago, before his sickness struck, Kaizler was such a happy child. Now, they were lucky if they could get him out of bed. To Tony Wood and his wife, it was clear that something was happening to their little boy. Soon enough, the bloodwork came back. What the doctor would reveal to them would change the Wood family forever…

11. Far Worse Than They Anticipated

One day, not long after Wood and Rachel received a phone call. Surprisingly, it was the hospital calling to let them know that Kaizler needed to return as soon as possible. You see, his doctor thought that Kaizle could be anemic, have a terrible infection, or possibly even worse. “They told us that he either had a severe viral infection, or he had Leukemia,” Tony said. “We have never prayed so hard for a severe viral infection in our lives.”

The Woods felt utterly devastated and terrified. Even worse, the call came in just days before Christmas, a time of joy and family celebration. So, worried sick, the Woods began praying for a Christmas miracle.

12. The Worst News Possible

On the day before Christmas Eve, Tony Wood and his wife Rachel sat in their son Kaizler’s doctor’s office. There, she finally gave them the diagnosis of their son. Unfortunately, the doctor told them something that no parent would ever want to hear: it wasn’t a virus. Horribly, she informed the family, Kaizler did indeed have Leukemia.

Many parents would feel utterly obliterated by this news. However, while Wood and his family felt devastated, they did not waste any time feeling sorry for themselves. They were ready to battle this illness with their son. Immediately, Wood and Rachel did what any other parent would do in their situation: started praying and never gave up hope. They felt confident that Kaizler would conquer the disease with the proper treatment.

13. Not Losing Hope

While Wood and his family felt upset to learn about Kaizler’s leukemia, the Woods had faith that, in the end, everything would turn out for the best. After all, Kaizler had never been sick one day in his life before all this happened. So with nothing left to do, they decided to leave everything in God’s hands.

“Through it all though, we know God is with us,” Wood said. “He has shown himself to us on several occasions, and we trust that He will pull us through.” Little did Wood know that his prayers would soon be answered. However, it did not happen in a way he ever expected…

14. “Prayers For Kaizler”

Shortly after Tony Wood and his wife Rachel found out about their son’s situation, they decided to set up a Facebook page called “Prayers for Kaizler.” As incredibly spiritual people, the Woods hoped that prayers from kind people who came across the Facebook page might help Kaizler’s situation.

However, these kinds of pages sometimes elicit more than just prayers. While the primary purpose of the page was to create awareness, they ended up receiving much more. It all started when, one day, another stranger joined the page and took the family initiative to a whole new level. However, unbeknownst to them, the stranger already knew the Wood family…

15. Another Encounter

After the Prayers for Kaizler Facebook group came to fruition and started gaining attention, Wood also shared the link to the group on his Twitter account. Over the next day, plenty of people on Twitter told them that they had joined the group with their Facebook profiles.

One of the people that reached out to Wood on Twitter was a mysterious stranger, user @iluminaughty. Strangely, the Twitter user had a faceless profile and had little to no details on their personal life. As the Woods had no idea who @iluminaughty was, they didn’t think much about the newest member of the Pray for Kaizler group. Little did Wood know that this stranger would end up helping them in the most fantastic way possible!

16. A Bizarre Request

On their Twitter account, @iluminaughty decided that they would try and help the Woods in the only way they knew how. The day after they contacted Tony Wood, the mysterious stranger tweeted out a link to the GoFoundMe the family set up to help cover Kaizler’s medical expenses.

While Wood and Rachel had no idea who this person was, they believed he or she had good intentions. Plus, at that moment, Wood and Rachel felt ready to do whatever it took to help their son get better. However, shortly after tweeting the link to Kaizler’s GoFundMe, @iluminaughty user made a bizarre request to the Wood family. One that revealed how this Twitter user knew the Wood family…

17. Thumbs Up!

After tweeting out the link to Kaizler’s GoFundMe, @iluminaughty asked for something very particular: a photo of little Kaizler, with his thumbs up. As it turns out, the mystery Twitter user had remembered the viral photo of Wood’s children signaling a thumbs up from weeks before!“So, I thanked him for his consideration and posted a picture of Kaizler giving a thumbs up,” Wood said.

Of course, @iluminaughty was not the only one who remembered the viral tweet from Mandi Miller. However, they seem to be the only ones who put two and two together. That is, until Wood shared the picture he sent to @iluminaughty in a post. Soon enough, others wanted a picture of Kaizler giving them a thumbs up. From there, things really started to pick up!

18. A PR Genius

Shortly after Tony Wood shared the first photo of Kaizler giving a thumbs up went online, the family once again started becoming a viral sensation once again. The first time around, the Wood family had not cared much about their viral fame. “We told the kids they were Twitter famous and, while they thought that was cool, we didn’t get a big response mostly because they don’t exactly know what Twitter is,” Wood said.

However, this time around, the stakes were higher. You see, The Woods hoped that a widespread circulation of Kaizler’s new photo would translate into more donations on his GoFoundMe. But that’s precisely what happened next! “What really shocked us was the growth of our GoFundMe account,” Wood recalled.

19. Twitter For The Win

After Tony Wood shared the photo of Kaizler giving a thumbs up, everything started to blow up: his Twitter account, the Facebook group, the GoFundMePage, everything! In fact, they earned quite a bit of money in just a few hours: “I remember tweeting about how the GoFundMe had received an extra $1,000! We were so excited — that $1,000 was going to be a BIG deal for us in our current situation,” Wood said.

It seemed as though the mysterious @iluminaughty had acted as a PR person for the Wood family by requesting the photo. Whether they had intended to or not, this mysterious stranger had helped them out tremendously. And to think, it all started when @iluminaughty saw the posts about the wrong number text! However, believe it or not, the best was still yet to come…

20. 24 Hours Later

The day after sharing the photo of Kaizler @iluminaughty had requested, the Woods felt overwhelmed with what had happened. In just 24 hours, the good people of the internet had more than doubled the amount of money in Kaizler’s GoFundMe!

Believe it or not, the family raised a whopping $10,000, overnight, thanks to @iluminaughty request! As you can imagine, treatments for leukemia are incredibly expensive. So it was such a blessing for Wood and his family to receive help from such kind-hearted souls. Now, they could worry less about money and spend more time focusing on their son’s health.

21. Coming Together

Social media often earns a poor reputation, accused of resembling an unaccountable group of locker room trash talkers. In fact, Twitter is often said to be the worst of the major social sites. However, when the people of the World Wide Web occasionally choose to come together for a good cause, they do so in style!

Eventually, Kaizler Wood’s GoFoundMe donations earned over $60,000 in donations. That incredible amount of money, especially since the family initially only asked for $10,000. Furthermore, in addition to the contributions, kind messages from all around the world poured in who supported Kaizler and the Wood family. Many even said that they had arrived at the page, thanks to the original viral posts about the wrong number text! Soon enough, the mainstream media had picked up the story!

22. Making the Headlines

After the incredible outpouring of support from online donors, media outlets across the world wanted to tell the story of the Wood family. “I can’t even begin to tell you what this means to us, what this means for us,” Tony Wood told one publication. Of course, more media attention meant more donations for a family that needed all the help they could get.

“We have an amazing support of friends and family. The prayers have been non-stop, people have given their time and energy to help us in whatever ways they can,” he continued. “I am humbled by the generosity and outpouring of love we have received by the people we know, and by people we’ve never even met.”

23. Quitting His Job

As mentioned before, Tony Wood worked as a real estate agent before this incredible string of events began. However, since then, Wood has decided to leave his profession as a real estate agent and go back to what he described on Twitter as the “multiple job life.”

Between helping his wife raise six children and helping Kaizler navigate through his illness, Wood simply found it too challenging to manage his own real estate business. However, Wood hasn’t changed his Twitter bio to reflect his departure from the real estate industry. So it’s safe to assume that he’s not done just yet! Maybe, when things calm down a bit, he’ll work for himself again one day.

24. Reflecting on His Decision

Tony Wood never expected he would become famous twice in his life. The first time, he simply made a stranger’s day after an understandable wrong number test. Then, he and his son became the target of a goodwill initiative from hundreds of strangers. Since then, Wood has reflected on his initial decision to respond to Syd’s wrong number text.

“Society puts a lot of pressure on these young women to have a certain look and a certain body build,” he told . “We try to teach our children to be themselves and not worry about what others think… Even with that, my young daughters already express a desire to ‘fit in’ and I figured this young lady might need that reassurance.” While Wood has revealed a lot about this incredible story, many still have one question: just who exactly was @Iluminaughty?

25. Who Was @Iluminaughty?

Over time, the Wood family did discover further details about @Iluminaughty, the mysterious Twitter user who requested the photo of Kaizler. During an interview, Tony Wood said that the stranger is a “kind man from India” but refused to provide any more details.

And there might be a good reason why Wood did not give more information: it seems that this generous stranger wants to keep a low profile. After his username became famous as part of the Woods’ story, he changed his user name to @_Hedge. While it remains unclear exactly why this man did help the Wood family, his Twitter bio sheds some light on his intentions: “Stop Hating, Start Loving,” it reads.

26. The Last Dose

Back in March 2019, Wood updated the GoFoundMe page with the most incredible update: “Just a few more clinics, and Kaizler gets to take his last dose of chemo (God willing that there isn’t a relapse).” Hopefully, that will be the last treatment – fingers crossed! In a different world, the Wood family very likely would have needed to take on massive debt to pay for Kaizler’s medical bills. But now, thanks to a wrong number text, they don’t have to worry about it!

Even better, it seems that the chemo treatments actually worked for little Kaizler! The pictures since his last treatment show a smiling boy ready to take on the world. The kind people behind the donations played an essential role in Kaizler recovery!

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